STC presents the preliminary schedule of sessions for the 2011 Summit, being held 15–18 May in Sacramento, CA. The sessions are listed below in order of date and time, then alphabetically by session title. They include the session title, track, speakers, and description. This list is as of 18 March; see http://summit.stc.org for any changes or additions. Conference education sessions are included with your registration.
16 May
8:30–9:30 AM
Caroline Jarrett, 10 Tips for a Better Survey
Track: Usability and Accessibility
Surveys: so easy to do, so hard to do well. If you want to get the most out of your next survey, come to this presentation for tips on questions, the process of the survey, incentives and most of all: testing.
Leah Guren, Cut the Fluff (A Diet for Text-Bloated Docs)
Track: Writing and Editing
Are your documents too wordy? Do you go on and on and on before you get to the point? Maybe you need to learn how to cut the fluff! Learn the tricks to trimming without terror and cutting without qualms.
Larry Kunz, Documentation in a Collaborative World: What We’ve Learned
Track: Managing People, Projects, and Business
The rapid rise of collaboration has changed the way we develop documentation. At the 2010 Summit I invited my audience to join a conversation about how to meet the challenges associated with these changes. Based on that conversation, I describe new best practices for editing, reviewing, legacy documentation, and localization.
Multiple Presenters, Expanded Roles and Added Value for Technical Communicators
Track: Professional Development
Listen and interact with panelists to discover ways to apply your tech comm skillset to jobs that might surprise you. Learn how to bring added value to what you already know. With Dawnell Claessen, Cindy Currie-Clifford, Barbara Giammona, Virginia Glass, Connie Kiernan, and Linda Oestreich.
Tristan Bishop, TechComm 2020: Get Vision, Be Ready
Track: Design, Architecture, and Publishing
Communication is morphing at a dizzying rate. In some fields, technological advancements disintegrate job functions without warning. This presentation will use statistics to present a vision of the technical communication profession in 2020, and explain steps we can take today to be a part of that vision.
Tom Aldous, What’s New In Tech Comm Suite 3 and FrameMaker 10
Track: Design, Architecture, and Publishing
Learn what’s new in Technical Communication Suite 3. The session will highlight the new FrameMaker 10 and RoboHelp 9 Integration along with DITA 1.2 support.
Scott Abel, What’s the Next Big Challenge? Content Delivery!
Track: Social Media Institute
Learn how businesses big and small are leveraging the power of the crowd to create exceptional socially enabled customer assistance experiences, engaging interactive/enhanced digital content, useful mobile device apps, and powerful location-aware help. The goal is delivering the right information, to the right people, at the right time, in the right language, and in the right format. But most organizations don’t have the bandwidth, talent, or experience to succeed without help.
10:00–11:00 AM
Carla Galvao Spinillo, Animated Visual Instructions: Can We do Better?
Track: User Experience Institute
Animated images are widely employed to communicate instructions. However, how effective are they? This session will discuss drawbacks in the presentation of instructions through animation from the information design perspective, taking into account the use of text/audio, interactivity, and the graphic presentation of information.
Sarah O’Keefe, Calculating ROI for DITA
Track: Business Strategy Institute
If you are considering DITA, but are trying to figure out whether you can justify the cost and effort, this session is for you. You’ll learn how to communicate the rationale for DITA in terms that management understands.
Kapil Verma, DITA Made Easy: Transition to DITA Authoring Using Adobe FrameMaker 10
Track: Design, Architecture, and Publishing
Anxious about transitioning to DITA? Worried about the learning curve when making the switch? This session will go over how FrameMaker makes it easy to migrate to DITA authoring. The enhanced DITA capabilities, including DITA 1.2 support and DITA specialization, and other enhancements in the recently launched version of FrameMaker 10 will be highlighted.
Nad Rosenberg, How Effective Graphics Can Improve Your E-learning Tutorials
Track: Education and Training
The session covers the basic principles of creating or selecting graphics (images, animations, and layout) that will make your e-learning tutorials more engaging and easier to understand. Further, it provides numerous examples and gives attendees real-world suggestions for choosing effective visuals.
Connie Kiernan, Linda Mikkelsen, Sally Spahn, Information Product Evaluation Workshop
Track: Writing and Editing
Individuals or teams of collaborative writers sign up in advance to bring samples of their information products to receive personal, one-on-one feedback from an expert. Technical communication experts provide a 30-minute analysis of the sample by evaluating information products for organization, style, layout, and use of graphics.
Multiple Presenters, Narratives over Numbers: Why Qualitative Research is Essential
Track: Writing and Editing
This panel, which brings together some of the leading qualitative researchers working today in technical communication, offers a discussion of the importance of qualitative research methods for technical communication practice. With Saul Carliner, James Conklin, Menno de Jong, Hillary Hart, and George Hayhoe.
Moderator Emily Celaric, Topics of Special Interest from STC SIGs
Track: Design, Architecture, and Publishing
A lineup of speakers will present on a variety of topics directly related to policy, procedures, process improvement, and tools and technology. Session attendees will learn about case studies and their results, doc management, the writing and editing process, policy function, workflow and process improvement, and specialized P&P Methodologies. With Audrey Bezner, Emily Celaric, Dawnell Claessen, Adrienne Escoe, Sharon Lynn, Marta Rauch, Catherine Reynolds, Raymond Urgo, and Rivka Vaughs.
Tyler Barnes, Using 3D to Explain Visually
Track: Design, Architecture, and Publishing
If a picture is worth 1,000 words, and video is worth 1,000 pictures, then how many words are interactive 3D product instructions worth? This presentation will discuss how multiple areas of your company can benefit from reusing your 3D engineering data to explain your products more visually and engage your audiences in new ways.
2:00–3:00 PM
Moderator Mike Markley, Best Practices in Management
Track: Managing People, Projects, and Business
This session is intended for anyone who is working in a management role, or aspires to do so. This will be a typical progression session. An outstanding group of technical communication managers will present and discuss topics related to project management, team management, supervision, and career development. With Francisco Abedrabbo, Bernard Aschwanden, Sara Baca, Rahel Bailie, Dick Hamilton, Mike Markley, Marta Rauch, Christine Sigman, Susan Tacker, and Daniel Voss.
Steve Jong, Certification and You
Track: Professional Development
Certification of technical communicators: How will it work? What will it cost? Is it right for you? Get the latest information and answers to your questions directly from members of the STC Certification Committee.
Robert Anderson, DITA Specialization— Why Would I do That?
Track: Design, Architecture, and Publishing
The words DITA and specialization are often linked—but is specialization really required in order to use DITA? What is it, and when is it really a good idea? We will go over the basics and then discuss the process IBM uses when deciding when to specialize.
Brad Nunnally, From Cancer to Bankruptcy
Track: Usability and Accessibility
Performing in-home ethnographic interviews is especially personal for user experience designers. But when the research is based on a person’s personal health or finances, it gets taken to a whole new level.
Nicky Bleiel, John Hedtke, Joe Welinske, Have a Tech Comm Question? Ask the Experts!
Track: Professional Development
Join us for a rapid-fire Q&A session. We have 100 combined years of experience in technical communication and will answer your questions about writing, consulting, Help, usability, management, blogging, leadership, DITA, and much more. We will take questions live, plus answer a few gathered in advance via social media.
Ankur Jain, Interactive and Web 2.0 Delivery Mechanisms for Your Content
Track: Design, Architecture, and Publishing
Harnessing the power of Web 2.0 to build and deliver robust documentation is becoming more and more important. The importance of the technical writer engaging end users, soliciting and incorporating feedback to ensure delivery of the most useful and usable documentation must be emphasized. Learn how today’s and tomorrow’s technology can enable this process.
Elizabeth Frick, Oral Questioning Skills for the Technical Communicator
Track: Communication and Interpersonal Skills
A major factor in a technical communication professional’s success is asking questions—the right questions. If you’ve ever suffered expensive consequences because you didn’t ask the right question or you framed your question poorly, you’ll benefit from this lively and interactive session on learning to ask the right questions.
Phylise Banner, Socio-Technical Design: The Future of Online Community
Track: Social Media Institute
Every few years, new computer interaction paradigms are introduced. Mediated communication networks have become mainstream. Moving from the human-computer interaction to the human-network interaction, socio-technical design looks at the exchange of information within mediated communication networks, and sets the groundwork for group interaction within these environments.
3:30–4:30 PM
Rajat Bansal, Extending Adobe FrameMaker Beyond What’s In the Box
Track: Design, Architecture, and Publishing
This session will cover the extended support for scripting in FrameMaker 10 and show interesting integration pieces on how FrameMaker ExtendScript can be used to extend the capabilities beyond what’s available in the box. The session will demonstrate some “cool” integrations and samples.
Peter Lubbers, HTML5: The Next Internet Gold Rush
Track: Web Technologies
Attend this session for a behind-the-scenes look at HTML5 and how it differs from previous versions of HTML. Learn the vision and design principles behind HTML5 and how this will affect the TC field. You will see practical demonstrations of the different features of HTML5, including the new semantic markup. HTML5 is available in most modern browsers, but you will also learn how to make it work in older ones.
Multiple Presenters, IDL SIG Progression
Track: Education and Training
The Instructional Design and Learning SIG brings the experiences of its members to you by providing this progression on the latest topics around creating and using innovative instructional design. With Jackie Damrau, Robert Hershenow, Cheryl Landes, Gloria Reece, Jeanette Rogers, Jamye Sagan, and Maralee Sautter.
Vic Passion, Metrics that Demonstrate the Value of Technical Communication
Track: Managing People, Projects, and Business
This mini-workshop introduces the benefits of measuring the return on investment (ROI) for technical communication projects. Through scenarios, participants will plan for ways to measure the ROI of fictional projects.
Andrea Ames, Strategic, Competitive Professional Development: An Overview
Track: Professional Development
Are you developing professionally, every day, and in every way? If not, you risk more than you think. We often relegate professional development to the land of “nice to have.” In today’s challenging economy and business environment, you can’t afford to not continually add to your own professional value.
Charles Cooper, Ann Rockley, Tech Docs Reinvented: The Power of Enhanced Books
Track: Content Strategy Institute
Content isn’t just text anymore. With the emergence of ebooks, e-readers, and now the iPad, we can finally break out of the text box and incorporate moving and interactive media in our information.
Rachel Houghton, Kathryn Poe, The Scrum Master and the Agile Newbie
Track: Writing and Editing
So your company is going Agile? What would that mean to you? How does a writer fit into the Agile world order? What do you write and for who and when is it due? Find the answer to these and other pressing questions in this Q&A session.
17 May
8:30–9:30 AM
Don Moyer, Building Visual Explanations: Practical Advice for Writers
Track: Writing and Editing
Visual explanations are powerful tools because they invite audiences into topics and help them understand and remember complex ideas. What steps can a writer follow to develop engaging and effective visual explanations? Participants in this session will receive a workbook and complete several exercises to practice what they are learning.
Moderator Edward Marshall, CIC SIG Progression
Track: Design, Architecture, and Publishing
This session presents several topics of interest to technical writers working in contract/consulting roles or who are considering moving into this model. With Louellen Coker, Cheryl Landes, Linda Gallagher, Edward Marshall, and Teresa Stover.
Jack Molisani, How to Build a Business Case
Track: Business Strategy Institute
If you’ve ever submitted a purchase request that was not approved, chances are it lacked one or more of the vital components management looks for when allocating resources. Attend this session and learn how to speak “CxO” and create a successful business case.
Linda Urban, Paths to Success: Networking, Contributing, and Relationships
Track: Communication and Interpersonal Skills
What does it take to be successful as a technical communicator? We tend to focus on skills and abilities, but other factors are equally important. This mini-workshop focuses on the relationships, attitudes, and actions that can make the difference. Discover ideas to help you move in the direction you want.
Saul Carliner, Nancy Coppola, Profession Building: What Peer-Reviewed Literature Tells Us
Track: Professional Development
This session reports findings from a study that maps peer-reviewed journal content to the taxonomy used as the basis of the Technical Communication Body of Knowledge (TCBOK).
Rahel Anne Bailie, Refining the Content Lifecycle
Track: Content Strategy Institute
The content lifecycle is at the core of the content strategy. Managing the content lifecycle is the implementation of a strategy, and a successful implementation means managing all of the components of the lifecycle. See how a content lifecycle applies in a variety of circumstances.
Carol Barnum, Laura Palmer, Users Play Cards. We Keep Score. Magic Results!
Track: Usability and Accessibility
Our use of Microsoft’s product reaction cards over numerous studies gives us a window into users’ experience that is eye-opening and amazingly consistent within each study. We show and tell how we use the cards and the results we obtain.
10:00–11:00 AM
Michelle Corbin, Linda Oestreich, Editing: Reviewing Levels and Choosing Types
Track: Writing and Editing
Review the “Classic Nine” types and five levels of edit from the past and compare them to newer editing types in the current literature. Learn how to apply levels of edits to today’s work world, tools, and conditions.
Scott Abel, Facebook Stories: How the World’s Largest Social Network Is Being Used
Track: Social Media Institute
Learn how individuals, companies, and non-profits are using Facebook. Facebook has changed lives, helped companies accomplish their marketing/sales goals and is used by nonprofits to leverage the social platform, mobile devices, and location-awareness to respond to disasters, raise awareness, and solicit donations. This fast-paced session will be jam-packed with interesting stories and lessons learned from people who have made the big, stupid mistakes. Attendees will gain an understanding of some of the issues that are impacting the socially enabled world in which we find ourselves today.
Joe Sokohl, From Design to Definition
Track: User Experience Institute
How do we move from research to design to development without losing sight of the user experience? This session looks at specifying UX artifacts for team members to glean meaning from our work. How does experience design specify its output in a way that developers can code and business can understand how the UX relates to business requirements?
Karen Lane, Ed Marshall, Richard Shrout, Index Evaluation Workshop
Track: Writing and Editing
This session offers a 30-minute, one-on-one discussion with an experienced indexer who will evaluate an index you have created or are currently creating.
Kevin Lim, Project Management for Technical Writers
Track: Managing People, Projects, and Business
Large, complex documentation projects, like software projects, should have strategies that could be executed with limited resources. Project management principles on influencing people you do not manage, getting support from management, and understanding the larger organization goals can help you deliver projects on time.
Mary Craig, Pamela Kostur, Structured Authoring: A First Step to Content Management
Track: Design, Architecture, and Publishing
Structured authoring is an ideal first step to implementing content management. Structuring content prepares it for reuse and its eventual migration to a content management system, and prepares authors for writing in a structured authoring environment.
Moderator Carolyn Klinger, Usability Progression: Discussing Techniques and Career Options
Track: Usability and Accessibility
Learn how to design a one-question survey, how to find the right fit as a UX professional, the challenges of usability testing a complex application, and how to set up source documents in Word and FrameMaker to support accessibility. With Michael Albers, Jamie Conklin, George Hayhoe, Caroline Jarrett, Carolyn Klinger, and Alice Preston.
1:00–2:00 PM
Jang Graat, How to Give Effective Presentations
Track: Communication and Interpersonal Skills
Good presentations engage the audience and allow you to get your message across without effort. This workshop gives you insight in communication and shows what you can do to improve your presentation skills. Not a loose collection of tips and tricks, but profound insight and clear focus points.
Paul Pehrson, It’s All Fun and Games Until Somebody Gets Sued
Track: Education and Training
IP doesn’t need to be a dirty word. In this presentation, you will learn about what content developers need to know about protecting and respecting intellectual property rights. You will see some examples of what not to do, and more importantly, learn tips to protect you and your work.
Richard Hamilton, Managing Book Development Using a Wiki
Track: Web Technologies
This presentation describes how to combine the ease-of-use of wikis with the ease-of-production of XML technology using readily available wiki and XML technology. The presentation is based on experience developing Alan Porter’s latest book using PBWiki and DocBook
Judith Glick-Smith, Managing Conflict on Diverse Teams
Track: Managing People, Projects, and Business
We all encounter conflict in our lives on a daily basis. Conflict occurs within us and in our relationships. How we respond to conflict makes all the difference in the world as to its resolution. This workshop will help you with strategies to minimize and resolve conflict more effectively.
Neil Perlin, Mobile Content: Single Sourcing to the Max
Track: Design, Architecture, and Publishing
Thinking about trying mobile for your online help or doc but hesitant because of the need for new tools? App programming? Try using your help authoring tool. We’ll review mobile outputs from RoboHelp and Flare, then look at the features that help create the most flexible and controlled content possible.
Michael Priestley, Smart Content: IBM’s Next Generation Information Experience
Track: Content Strategy Institute
Come see the new next-generation user experience with information that years of investment in DITA, metadata, and rigorous information architecture are allowing the IBM corporate strategy team to deliver. We’ll do a show-and-tell, discuss architectural and user experience issues, and share ideas that you can apply in your domain.
Patty Murdock, Katrina Pigusch, Sarah Wakefield, Strategies of SME Communication
Track: Communication and Interpersonal Skills
SME communication can be challenging. Successful developers must be able to produce results within the sometimes-frustrating SME/developer relationship. In this interactive simulation, participants will practice gathering information from three different, but equally challenging, SMEs. Participants will leave this session with specific tips and insights to communicate effectively with various SMEs.
2:30–3:30 PM
Connie Kiernan, BOK Challenge—A Jeopardy-Like Game for Technical Communicators
Track: Professional Development
BOK Challenge, a Jeopardy-like game, will test your knowledge in a wide variety of technical communication topics—all based on information in STC’s Body of Knowledge portal. Teams will win “BOK Bucks” and bragging rights as the BOK Challenge Champions! You’ll also hear about the status of adding content to the BOK Portal.
Paula Toth, Change, Trust, Collaboration: Adapting to Single Source Technologies
Track: Communication and Interpersonal Skills
During this session you will learn tips and tricks that will help you comfortably stretch your trust and collaboration skills to successfully adapt to single-source technologies.
Matt Sullivan, Delivering Content with Adobe TCS 3
Track: Design, Architecture, and Publishing
PDF, print, and Help are no longer enough! ePub and handheld devices are now mainstream. We now need to simultaneously deliver content across all devices. Help is no longer static; now we need to provide feedback mechanisms, ways for clients to bookmark and highlight content, and ways to push updates out to appropriate users. And our content becomes part of the larger social discussion. In this session you will follow a single-sourced project from end to end using Adobe RoboHelp 9. See working examples of embedded demonstrations, quizzing, and social interaction, and learn how you can manage outputs so that content is both single sourced and quickly updatable across all potential outputs. You’ll learn how each of these formats behaves in each output and how to get the best out of your content across each format.
Scott Prentice, ePub: Why, What, and How?
Track: Design, Architecture, and Publishing
You hear about eBooks every day, and perhaps you’re one of those early adopters who uses a new eBook reader. Have you considered the possibility of publishing your content as an eBook? This presentation explains the Why, What, and How of the popular ePub format.
Patricia Boswell, Google Analytics: Measuring Content Use and Engagement
Track: Web Technologies
You can use Analytics to measure user engagement with your online docs. I’ll demonstrate how our user education team uses Google Analytics on our developer documentation (http://code.google.com/apis/analytics/) to get insight into how well our documents are serving our users.
Angela Colter, Incorporating Accessibility into Your Usability Reviews
Track: Usability and Accessibility
If you’re already conducting expert reviews of websites, find out how to identify accessibility issues on the Web that affect people with vision, hearing, cognitive, and motor impairments.
4:00–5:00 PM
Janet Swisher, Before You Pick a Wiki
Track: Web Technologies
Is your company moving documentation to a wiki? What process and policy issues should you consider (preferably) before selecting a wiki for documentation? If the choice of a wiki has already been made for you, learn to manage expectations and produce the best outcome for your situation.
Multiple Presenters, International Communication: What’s Going On Out There?
Track: Managing People, Projects, and Business
A group of experts discuss various topics including teamwork in a global workspace, preparing terminology, global content management, field review implementation, L10N, XML, and CMS & Harmonizing Technical Global Documentation. Come learn and share your experiences. Take home new ideas. With Theodora Landgren, Karen Levine, Lionel Lim, Ronald Stone, and Debra Tate.
Samartha Vashishtha, Localizing Images: Cultural Aspects and Visual Metaphors
Track: Writing and Editing
When we think localization, we usually think of text and screenshots. However, translating images, keeping in mind the cultural ethos of the target audience, is crucial too, especially for marketing-oriented content and websites. In this session, we will look at the cultural aspects that must be considered while localizing images.
Tom Johnson, Organizing Help Content: Breaking Out of Topic-Based Hierarchies
Track: Design, Architecture, and Publishing
Organizing help content so that users can both find and learn information often requires technical writers to break out of the traditional topic-based folders and move toward faceted navigation, search engine optimization, interface text, level-based help, and other methods for organizing content.
Karen Baranich, Jackie Damrau, Jeanette Rogers, Training Evaluation Workshop
Track: Education and Training
In this workshop, participants can pre-submit course materials for evaluation by one of our expert instructional designers. Each participant will receive both written and verbal comments on their materials—comments cover all aspects of instructional design and are aimed to highlight strengths and provide opportunities for improvement.
Karen McGrane, We Are All Content Strategists Now
Track: Content Strategy Institute
Out of relative obscurity, content strategy has become the next big buzzword. Some say it fills a gap in our professional practices. Others argue it’s just a different name for things we already do. In this session, we’ll discuss why the Web needs content—and how technical communicators of every stripe can put content strategy to work on their projects.
18 May
8:30–9:30 AM
Academic SIG, Academic Progression— Global and Local Issues in TC Instruction
Track: Education and Training
In this progression, the Academic SIG addresses the globally expanding role of technical communication education as it crosses many borders. Presentations include the ethics of teaching across national boundaries, graduate resources, distance education, menu-driven teaching, editing multi-lingual writers, and practitioners as resources. With Michael Albers, Sara Baca, Craig Baehr, Valerie Ball, Thomas Barker, Tatiana Batova, Pam Brewer, Ann Jennings, Daniel Voss, and Dave Yeats.
John Hedtke, Brenda Huettner, Coauthoring Without Homicide
Track: Writing and Editing
Coauthoring is a good idea when your coauthor can help you write something better or faster. But coauthoring isn’t always easy, particularly if you don’t know how to divide the work effectively. Learn how to work successfully with other writers who can complement your skills and lighten the workload.
Rebekka Andersen, Charlotte Robidoux, Cultivating a Culture of Collaboration
Track: Managing People, Projects, and Business
In today’s global economy, where real-time product development occurs continuously, collaboration is essential. Cultivating a truly collaborative culture, however, is not easy. The presenters draw on extensive research and experience to offer strategies for effecting cultural change.
Kristi Leach, Grassroots Documentation Testing
Track: Usability and Accessibility
In this mini-workshop, we will practice writing scenarios to test user assistance content on coworkers, followed by a brainstorming session to share success stories and discuss solutions for the most critical challenges to do-it-yourself documentation testing.
James Conklin, Knowledge Transfer: A New Opportunity for Technical Communicators
Track: Professional Development
This presentation focuses on the fast-growing field of knowledge transfer. Dr. James Conklin, an STC Fellow, describes the field of knowledge transfer and pinpoints emerging opportunities for technical communicators.
Rob Hanna, Metadata Primer for Technical Communicators
Track: Design, Architecture, and Publishing
Metadata is the intelligence behind “Intelligent Content.” Without metadata, content cannot be effectively used or managed—it is just words. You may be familiar with the term as “information about information” but it is much more. In this session, you will learn how to manage metadata and make it effective.
10:00–11:00 AM
Bernard Aschwanden, Around the World in 80 Days: Case Study of the Adobe FrameMaker 10 Reviewer’s Guide
Track: Design, Architecture, and Publishing
Join the speaker as he details a three-month project that spanned the globe and resulted in the Adobe FrameMaker 10 Reviewer’s Guide. This study shows how an interactive multimedia PDF document with video, audio, detailed tasks, and multiple deliverables was created. From a draft to a finished set of files managed with the Adobe Tech Comm Suite, this session explores documenting one of the most popular tools used by STC members. Learn how the project was conceived, planned, managed, implemented, and delivered in a truly global fashion.
Simon Bate, DITA Open Toolkit Essentials
Track: Design, Architecture, and Publishing
The DITA Open Toolkit (OT) is the standard way to generate deliverables from DITA documents. To the casual user, the OT may seem intimidating. This presentation shows how anyone can install the OT and generate output. A tour of the OT contents and how the plugin architecture works is included.
Donte Ormsby, Make It Snappy— Web-Based Reference Guides
Track: Education and Training
So many companies create training and then wonder why it doesn’t stick. One reason is that the Web has changed how we acquire information. We expect it faster and training is no exception. “Make It Snappy” demonstrates simple principles professionals can follow to create fast, on-demand Web-based quick reference guides
Mark Fidelman, Making the Case for Mobile Intelligent Content
Track: Business Strategy Institute
See Summit website for description.
Moderator Meredith Kinder, Technical Editing Progression: The Evolving Role of Editing
Track: Writing and Editing
This progression highlights how editing continues to evolve and yet retain its core values. Specifically you’ll hear the presenters share their editing experiences in areas such as microblogging, style, format consistency, modular documentation, collaborative authoring, project tracking, peer reviews, video scripts, and simplicity. With Charles Crawley, David Hicks, Meredith Kinder, Lori Meyer, Kelli Pharo, Ann Marie Queeney, Daniel Riechers, Diane Ross, and Andrea Wenger.
Lisa Pietrangeli, Writing for Localization: Hands-On Tips and Best Practices
Track: Writing and Editing
Decisions you make from word choice to how much white space is available on your document page affect the localization process, translation accuracy, reader accessibility, overall cost, and time-to-market. This workshop is a hands-on approach to authoring and design for an international audience.
11:30 AM–12:30 PM
Neil Perlin, Beyond the Bleeding Edge
Track: Design, Architecture, and Publishing
As technical communication becomes increasingly technical, it’s vital for STC members to keep abreast of what’s on the horizon. Bleeding Edge speakers will help by introducing new trends, tools, or technologies that might affect STC members. Topics will be selected in March so as to be as timely as possible.
Chris Hester, Bringing Experience to the Table
Track: Professional Development
As communicators, we have a wealth of skills relevant to the design arena. In this presentation, a technical writer tells the story behind her transition to experience design and shares her projects, tools, and resources.
Ryan Boettger, Examining Error in the Technical Communication Editing Test
Track: Writing and Editing
This presentation examines the popular topic of usage error by quantifying the types and frequencies of errors found in 41 editing tests used to screen prospective technical writers and editors. Results can improve the effectiveness of the editing test as well as improve error instruction at universities.
Sebastien Quintas, Generating Consistent Documentation Estimates
Track: Managing People, Projects, and Business
This session will demonstrate a standard estimating process by which technical writers can provide consistent estimates for any project according to documentation tasks, complexity levels, artifact details, and scope changes.
Kel Smith, Innovations in Accessibility: Designing for Digital Outcasts
Track: Usability and Accessibility
Introduced by researchers from the University of Sussex, the term “digital outcasts” describes users with disabilities who are left behind as technology advances. This presentation will explore emerging technologies (mobile apps, games, virtual worlds, etc.) as they apply to barrier-free digital products in the healthcare sector, cultivating greater social awareness.
Lone Writer SIG, Lone Writer Progression
Track: Design, Architecture, and Publishing
This progression focuses on topics of particular interest to people working as lone writers in their organizations. With Kathee Kuvinka, Darice Lang, Fei Min Lorente, Karen Mulholland, Mike Nelson, Paula Robertson, and John Sgammato.
Michael Opsteegh, Putting Your Best Font Forward
Track: Design, Architecture, and Publishing
Learn to create documents, help, Web pages, and presentations that people actually want to read! This fast-paced presentation touches the fundamentals of graphic design, the key elements of typography, and the ethical implications that all technical communicators must know to create attractive and innovative materials.
Eric Shepherd, Radically Open Documentation
Track: Web Technologies
What’s it like to not just allow community contributions to your documentation, but depend on them? What if literally anybody could edit the docs and see your work as you write? Mozilla doc team members share their experiences working with radically open documentation for end-users and developers.
